A pleasant, coffee-time solve.
Plenty of old friends and conventions help speed our way through this elegant and accurate set. Thanks to Peto.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DRESSAGE | Time to prepare before equestrian event (8) |
| AGE (‘time’) preceded by DRESS (‘prepare’). | ||
| 5 | ACTS UP | Behaves badly when taught with Biblical text (4,2) |
| ACTS (New Testament ‘text’) + UP (at university, being ‘taught’). | ||
| 10 | RIPTIDE | Problem for swimmers with tendency to rush at the start (7) |
| RIP (to ‘rush’) + TIDE (‘tendency’). | ||
| 11 | ROMANCE | Lie about owning country clubs (7) |
| RE[ferring to] (= ‘about’) surrounds (‘owning’) OMAN (‘country’) + C[lubs]. | ||
| 12 | STOCK | Handle farm animals (5) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 13 | NO-ACCOUNT | Reckon on a denial being of little use (2-7) |
| ACCOUNT (‘reckon’) after NO (‘denial’). | ||
| 14 | FOURTH ESTATE | Refutes nothing that is reproduced in the press (6,6) |
| Anagram (‘that is reproduced’) of REFUTES + 0 (‘nothing) +THAT. | ||
| 18 | SHOW BUSINESS | Explain one’s concerns for the entertainment industry (4,8) |
| SHOW (‘explain’) + BUSINESS (“one’s concerns”). | ||
| 21 | ABSTRACTS | Summarises theoretical positions at the end (9) |
| ABSTRACT (‘theoretical’) + S (end of ‘positionS’). To ‘abstract’, say, a legal document, is to shorten it by abbreviaton & omission. | ||
| 23 | ABHOR | Detest husband stabbing wild boar (5) |
| H[usband] in anagram (‘wild’) of BOAR. | ||
| 24 | DEAD END | Complete before the last part in which further progress is impossible (4,3) |
| DEAD (‘complete’ as in a ‘dead cert’) + END (‘last part’). | ||
| 25 | AMNESTY | Means to negotiate extremely tricky general pardon (7) |
| Anagram (‘to negotiate’) of MEANS + ends of ‘TrickY’. | ||
| 26 | RATHER | Quite right to have change of heart (6) |
| R[ight] + anagram of HEART. | ||
| 27 | HEADGEAR | Equipment needed by top bowlers for instance (8) |
| HEAD (‘top’) + GEAR (‘equipment’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DURESS | Landseer essentially capturing river’s force (6) |
| DS (the centre of ‘lanDSeer’) surrounds URE (the ‘river’), then that stray ‘S’. | ||
| 2 | EMPLOY | Hire Peto to come up with cunning plan (6) |
| EM (upward reversal of ME = Peto, our setter) + PLOY (‘cunning plan’). | ||
| 3 | STINK BOMB | Move quickly after trouble caused by prankster’s device (5,4) |
| BOMB (to ‘move quickly’) + STINK (‘trouble’). | ||
| 4 | GREEN CROSS CODE | Naive to get vexed over third rate poem as an aid to road safety (5,5,4) |
| GREEN (‘naive’) + CROSS (‘vexed’) + C (‘third rate’) + ODE (‘poem’). | ||
| 6 | COMIC | Funny to find company member in charge (5) |
| CO[mpany] + M[ember] + I[n] C[harge]. | ||
| 7 | SINGULAR | Strange rulings upset boxing association at first (8) |
| Anagram (‘upset’) of RULINGS surrounds (‘boxes’) A[ssociation]. I think the ‘at first’ is cruciverbally tautological. | ||
| 8 | PRETTIER | Peter’s wrong to assume Bond is more attractive (8) |
| Anagram (‘wrong’) of PETER surrounds TIE (‘bond’). | ||
| 9 | BREATHING SPACE | Brief respite from life at fashionable German bathing facility on the outskirts of Cologne (9,5) |
| 5-parter: BREATH (‘life’ as in ‘while I have breath…’) + IN (‘fashionable’) + G[erman] + SPA (‘bathing facility’) + outer parts of ‘ColognE’. | ||
| 15 | SUSTAINED | Continuing to sully earl in the south of France (9) |
| STAIN (to ‘sully’) + E[arl] both in SUD (Fr. ‘south’) | ||
| 16 | ISLANDER | Malicious report on current inhabitant of Skye (8) |
| I (elec. symbol for ‘current’) + SLANDER (‘malicious report’). | ||
| 17 | CONSTANT | Studies article going into race being fixed (8) |
| CONS (‘studies’) + AN (‘article’) in TT (‘race’). | ||
| 19 | CHASTE | Simple church on street in the centre of Caen (6) |
| CH[urch] over ST[reet] in centre of ‘cAEn’. For ‘chaste’, Chambers has ‘3. …pure …in taste and style 4. Restrained’, so ‘simple’ is fine. | ||
| 20 | PRAYER | Petition for proportional representation supported by philosopher (6) |
| P[roportional] R[epresentation] on (A.J., ‘Freddy’) AYER, the academic philosopher. | ||
| 22 | REEVE | Local official once contributing to macabre events (5) |
| Inclusion in ‘mababRE EVEnts’. | ||
*anagram
I’m not sure the S in 1dn is ‘stray’. I construe it as D-URE’S-S.
Thanks to GB and Peto for a sunny morning
8 Down has to be “Prettier” but the anagram of PETER surrounding TIE doesn’t work.
To Hornbeam:
Works either way, I think, but you’re probably right.
To Niltac:
Well spotted. How curious. I can’t see any other conclusion than a setting & editing (& of course blogging) mistake.
Thanks to Peto and GB. Smooth and enjoyable. I did not spot the problem with PRETTIER and GREEN CROSS CODE was new to me (but well clued).
Apart from the oops in 8d, an enjoyable solve. Although I can parse 11a mechanically, I don’t understand why romance = lie, unless Peto has had some bad experiences in the past! Thanks to both.
Jay Dee @ 5
Chambers definition 12 of ROMANCE: “An imaginative lie”
hth
Thanks Peto and Grant
Enjoyable puzzle in which the only new term for me was the GREEN CROSS CODE (was able to construct it from the word play and then had to verify it in a dictionary). Didn’t fully parse ABSTRACTS which was pretty simple as it turns out. Didn’t spot the blunder at 8d – funny how easy it is to become lazy and not completely check the anagram fodder sometimes.
Finished up in the NW corner with RIPTIDE, STINK BOMB and ROMANCE the last few in.
A postscript on the ‘Green Cross Code’. I’m increasingly aware that many solvers aren’t Brit residents, which is pleasing. I’m of an age (64) when our Green Cross Code (b. 1970) seems rather modern. Before that we had the more military Kerb Drill (“Stand still. Look right. Look left. Look right again. If all is clear, cross at a walking pace.”).
I’ll use fuller explanations of British institutions in future.
Enjoyed doing this, apart from 1dn & 10ac which were very poor